On beautiful May afternoons in Boulder it's a question Buffs fans still ask, including one of CU's newest and most loyal supporters -- Don Mitchell.

His story begins in Beacon Falls, Conn., where he grew up with six brothers and two sisters. All seven boys served the United States during wartime -- four in World War II, one in the Korean War and two more in the Vietnam War -- and made it back home.

Initially, Mitchell's mom wouldn't let him sign up for duty after he graduated from high school in 1942. Six months later he volunteered for the Army Air Force to be a part of a B-24 bomber crew.

After training in Nevada and taking a six-day train ride to New Jersey, Mitchell's unit took the super luxury liner Ile de France over to Scotland. They ended up in Ireland to begin training for missions before settling at the airfield base station in Wendling, England.

On Sept. 8, 1944, Mitchell flew his first mission with the 8th Army Air Corp, 392nd bomb group.

"I was scared as hell," Mitchell, who will be honored during the Bolder Boulder's Memorial Day Tribute on Monday at Folsom Field, said during a recent interview with the Camera while wearing his uniform jacket. "We weren't doing it to be heroes, we were doing it for the United States of America. We wanted to fight over there to make sure Hitler and Mussolini didn't come over here."

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On Dec. 2, 1944, Mitchell's crew went on a mission to Bingen, Germany, and the 30 B-24s met up with 40 German Me 109 fighters. Eight U.S. planes went down.

"We lost an engine but made it back to Germany after turning around," said Mitchell, a waist gunner on the B-24.

That same year the crew made its only mission to Berlin -- the most heavily-defended city in the war -- in which 24 of the 29 B-24s sent were shot up.

"We barely made it back," Mitchell said. "When we saw the White Cliffs of Dover we said, 'We're home.' We only had about 50 gallons of fuel left."

Before missions the crews would put on long underwear, an electrically heated suit (which didn't work), a flight suit, a life jacket, a parachute harness and a flak suit.

"I got hit with flak one time and it didn't go into my body thanks to the suit," Mitchell said.

The U.S. policy in the European theatre had been that after 25 missions B-24 crews were sent home. Since Mitchell's crew was engaged near the end of the war it was asked to perform 30 missions.

That turned into 33.

"And our last three were all lousy missions with all kind of damage," Mitchell said.

When the boys made it back safely from a run they would do two shots of Irish whiskey. Another B-24 crew that trained with Mitchell's crew and lived in the same hut missed the final celebration.

"They were going on their last mission. We had breakfast with them. They never came back," Mitchell recalls through a cracking voice, pausing to deal with the emotions of the memory. "They would have been back in the States in three days. I visited some of the families after the war."

Mitchell worked at a factory until he was 33 until realizing he didn't want to work in a factory for the rest of his life. He went to trade school and then had a 20-year career working the food service at Yale University.

Two and a half years ago, Mitchell's wife of 61 years, Patricia, died after a long illness. He decided to move to Boulder where his daughter Susan and granddaughter Sangya live.

During the last two winters, Mitchell -- who won a bracket pool after picking UConn to cut down the nets this March -- has attended about 60 women's and men's basketball games at the Coors Events Center. He even went on the bus with other die-hard fans to the WNIT game in Laramie to watch Brittany Spears and Co. beat Wyoming.

The Buffs coaches and players all treat Mitchell like the hero he is.

"Alec Burks is great to talk to," Mitchell, who will turn 87 next month, said of CU's 19-year-old star sophomore, who will be drafted into the NBA next month. "He really loved college."

And Mitchell has fallen in love with Boulder and CU. He just wishes the athletic department would bring baseball back.

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